Written by

Detroit Free Press Restaurant Critic

The Epicurean Group’s upscale Gastronomy restaurant at 1 Towne Square in Southfield will become a casual lunch spot and bar, beginning Monday, operations manager Eric Djordjevic announced in a press release late Friday.

The decision to close Gastronomy and remake it as the company’s third Epic Café location came “after much analysis,” Djordjevic’s announcement said.

The restaurant offered contemporary American cuisine in highly stylized presentations and was located on the ground floor of the office tower.

“The reality of ‘if you build it, they will come’ did not apply, no matter how exceptional” the restaurant was, Djordjevic said.

Discussions with tenants of the building and a focus group found that almost everyone “loved the quality and creativity of Gastronomy” but it wasn’t a place they wanted to dine on a routine basis, he said. At the same time, there was great demand for simpler, faster, less-expensive food.

The new Epic Café — serving sandwiches, entrees and favorites from the company’s previous Deli Unique restaurants — will initially be open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday. The bar area will remain open for happy hour and food service until 8 p.m. Hours will be expanded to breakfast, dinner and weekends if there is demand, the announcement said.

Djordjevic said the company still has confidence in the Gastronomy brand and will look for other places where the concept might be reopened.

Other Epic Cafes are located in Troy in the MET Hotel and the Michigan Design Center, and other openings are planned, he said.

Reservations for the new restaurant can be made by calling 248-864-4410.